1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a communication method and apparatus, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for performing communication in a Converged Personal Network Service (CPNS) environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the substantial increase in the use of Consumer Electronics (CEs) capable of short-range communication, e.g., MP3 players, Portable Multimedia Players (PMPs), and gaming terminals, many users would like to store content in their CEs in a simple way.
In general, a user searches for content available for a CE over the Internet using a Personal Computer (PC) and downloads the found content. Thereafter, the user connects the CE to the PC through a wired and wireless connection and downloads the secured content to the CE.
However, methods for CEs to access a long-range communication network directly are still quite limited. For example, some CEs can access a long-range communication network only if they can access the Internet using Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi) in an area with an Access Point (AP). Accordingly, a method for devices that are capable of short-range communication but incapable of directly accessing a long-range communication network, i.e., CEs, to access the long-range communication network via a gateway to use a desired service, e.g., a content download service, is required.
The Converged Personal Network Service (CPNS) has been proposed to meet these requirements. CPNS refers to a service in which a CE that provides a desired service and plays content, receives the desired service and content over a long-range communication network via a device serving as a gateway communicating with the long-range communication network after constructing a Personal Network (PN) including the device serving as a gateway and the CE. In the CPNS, the device is called a Personal Network Gateway (PN GW), and the CE accessing a long-range communication network via the PN GW by being connected to the PN GW using short-range communication is called a Personal Network Entity (PNE).
In a CPNS service, in order to form a PN, information (e.g., device capability, service/content information, and the like) associated with elements that are a part of the PN, i.e., a PN GW and a PNE, is delivered to a CPNS server to be registered and stored in the CPNS server. By doing so, PNEs in a CPNS environment can share and use a service or content provided by each of the PNEs with one another.
To this end, when a single PNE (a requesting PNE) in the CPNS service requests the CPNS server to send it the requesting PNE information regarding a specific PN and a service or content provided by a PNE belonging to the specific PN (a provide PNE), the CPNS server checks the requested information regarding the specific PN and information regarding the service or content provided by the provide PNE and transmits the checked service or content to the requesting PNE.
As described above, a PNE transmits its service or content to a requesting PNE without checking authorization of the requesting PNE or permission of a user who has established or was in possession of a relevant PN, causing serious problems.